Mice Update

Time for an interim report of the mice research. It is going badly!! These are the "Steves". They are the guys who are supposed to live a long time because of the supplements in their diets. You can't see it very well, but many of them have big open sores on their butts. It is from them attacking one another and biting one another. Both "tribes", experimental and control, are aggressive towards one another and there is a fair amount of fighting........

I think the difference may be that some of the supplements they get will thin the blood, supposedly slowing heart disease and stroke. They maybe more susceptible to injury and bleed. That is the only theory I can come up with. It has been suggested that the alcohol (they get a tiny amount in their water-equivalent to two drinks a day for us) is somehow making them more aggressive. But both tribes are aggressive and fight about the same amount. The other tribe has no injury or bleeding. They are slightly bigger and have fuller coats, too. The control mice eat about 10% more as well. Strange. Any suggestions or theories out there?.....

.........It has been about 2 months since I started this project and the first batch of treated food is almost gone. I have photographed the process of treating the food for the blog, since I needed a new batch. This is a one day dose of supplements for a human (namely, me). It has been in water for as long as it took me to find and turn on the camera (about 20-30 seconds). Several of the pills have almost exploded already.......

.....This is at about an hour. Looks delicious, no?. The mice weigh 250 grams (10 mice X 25 grams apiece) I weigh 80,000 grams. (doesn't that sound fat?.......it's 176 lbs). Anyway, 80,000 divides by 250 equals 320 so this gooey mess is enough supplement for 320 days for the Steves................

.........this is the next morning................

........here is Julia Childs pouring it into the blender..........

........this stuff smells so vile that "puree" seems like not enough punishment........

........we dilute it 4 to 1 because a handy sized batch is about 80 days of food............

....here Wendy is pouring it through a jelly strainer to take out any chunks that may clog the sprayer. Surprisingly, there are no chunks in the strainer.............

........now for the food. We use ordinary cheapo dry dog food. Neil did the research and reported it is the most effective for this use..............

.......then we put one quarter of it (and quickly dump the rest down the drain, it stinks!) in an ordinary window cleaner spray bottle...........

.......I am measuring our about 80 days worth of food (15 grams per mouse per day). Notice the bin I am scooping out of looks suspiciously like a 50 lb pig feeder from Fleet Farm. That's because it is a pig feeder. I feed my dog once every 3 months and she drinks out of the lake or the toilet, depending on the season. We call it "low maintenance".......

............then we spread the food out in a thin layer of cookie sheets...............

........The last step is to spray the mixture on the food, usually in 3-4 applications so it is even and not so heavy that it makes the food soggy. Time is allowed between applications to dry. That is the way we get the mice to eat the supplements for the experiment. No one ever complains about the smell or taste..........

.....As a parting shot, you may recognize our Mother about to take her annual ride, Keep in mind that there is still ice on the lake. In fact, Jake was still walking on it yesterday, and ice fishing somewhere as I type this!!.......

Uncle Hans